Plastic film bags are now the most common form of carry-out merchandise bags. A typical merchandise bag has the appearance of a basketball shirt. That is, it is has opposed front and rear walls connected by side gussets, and side handles are provided which are upward extensions of the front and rear walls, The handles are formed as closed loops, to permit carrying of the filled bags. This type of merchandise bag has commonly been referred to as a T-shirt bag.
Plastic film merchandise bags suffer from two major shortcomings. First of all, the front and rear walls tend to cling together, making the bags difficult to open. Secondly the plastic film of which the bags are composed exhibits very little stiffness, so that even after the bags are opened, they will not stand freely, hampering filling of the bags.
In order to cope with the shortcomings of plastic merchandise bags, numerous dispensing systems have been devised. Typically, they include some form of rack on which a pack of stacked bags is mounted. As a bag is removed from the pack, it is supported by the rack while being filled and may be removed from the rack when full. Although the rack offers some assistance in filling the bag, mounting bag packs on the rack is difficult and cumbersome. Although rack mounted systems have been of some benefit in grocery applications, they occupy too much space for general merchandise applications and tend to slow down the operation of the merchandise checkout counter. In effect, any benefit that may be gained by using the rack is effectively lost. As a practical matter, a checkout clerk is able to operate more efficiently without a rack, if he can quickly and consistently open consecutive bags for filling, even if they are not supported.
In accordance with the present invention, a pack of merchandise bags is provided in a closed storage and dispensing unit. A portion of the unit is removable to provide a window through which the bag pack is exposed. Each bag in the pack is provided with a front and rear tab at the top, with the rear tab of a bag being attached to the front tab of the next bag. In addition, the tabs are formed together in a stack which is secured inside the unit, and each rear tab is attached to its respective bag through a relatively weak perforation. Thus, when a bag is withdrawn from the back pack by means of the front tab, the bag is opened, because the rear tab is retained to the stack of tabs. However, as additional force is exerted on the bag, the rear tab is torn free at the perforation. Since this rear tab is attached to the front tab of the next bag, the next bag is automatically opened.
By mounting the pack of bags so that the window of the unit exposes the bottom of the bags, the withdrawal of the first bag causes the portion of the second bag containing the front tab to pop up from the window in the unit in the manner of a facial tissue dispenser. The second bag is, therefore, easily withdrawn from the unit and opened at the same time and, when fully withdrawn, will cause the front tab of the third bag to pop up. Thus, the unit permits consecutive bags to be quickly and easily opened by the operator. After the last bag of the pack is used, the unit may be disposed of.